adminClemence Manyukwe News Editor
FIFTEEN inmates on death row for up to 20 years will tomorrow appear at the Constitutional Court seeking a stay of execution arguing that the lengthy periods before their hanging amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.
Cuthbert Chawira, who is incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Prison and 14 others who were all sentenced to death following separate trials, want their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
Chawira was sentenced to death in September 2000 and has spent 15 years on death row for an armed robbery at Fairmile Motel in Gweru that resulted in the hotel manager’s murder.
He said the actual murder was committed by an accomplice but he was convicted on the basis of the doctrine of common purpose. Chawira said it was the view of all 15 inmates that long periods on death row make it unconstitutional to execute them.
He said prison conditions were a torture and unbearable, while food was a problem.
“Our contention in this matter is that we are entitled to the right to human dignity protected by Section 51 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. In addition we are entitled to protection from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. We contend that subjecting us to lengthy periods of imprisonment amounts to a breach of our right to human dignity and our right not to be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” Chawira said.
He said health facilities in prisons are inadequate and the State and prison authorities cannot provide adequate drugs.
Chawira said there are no newspapers or tissues in toilets and sometimes prisoners resort to using the bible as toilet roll.
“At Harare Remand Prison, condemned prisoners are confined in tiny cells that measure approximately 2 metres by 3.5 metres. The reality being that one’s stretched arm can easily touch the other walls.
“The light is kept constantly on and there is constant supervision in these cells. At Harare Central Prison, as at Chikurubi, we are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day and are only allowed out for exercise for 30 minutes per session in the morning and in the afternoon,” he said.
“There is a single window high up the grey walls of the prison which hardly admits any light as it is several metres high.”
Chawira said until recently, the only book allowed in the prison cells was the bible, but now they are allowed to have access to books approved by prison authorities.
“The physical pain caused by confinement in prison is horrendous. The physical pain caused by being in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day is unbearable,” he said.
“The challenge with execution is that none of the prisoners have any idea who the next one will be. Thus during the night, which is the period where those to be executed are taken away, we hardly sleep.”
Online Reporter